Andrew Denton is an Australian interviewer famous for his ability to get his guests to reveal intimate details of their lives, perhaps most famously getting Steve Irwin to share that he was too nervous to consummate his marriage on his wedding night. Because of this I was rather looking forward to his hour long interview with Angelina Jolie and Clint Eastwood. The show is called Enough Rope, as in ‘give them enough rope and they’ll hang themselves, or do tricks’.

Unfortunately, I think Angelina and Clint are suffering from interview fatigue, as it was the same sound bites we’ve been hearing for a while. Angelina spoke about her hesitation to make The Changeling, and how wonderful her family is, and her mother’s influence on the role. Clint again spoke about Angelina’s beauty getting in the way of her acting.

Angelina on paparazzi:
ANDREW DENTON: Angelina, earlier this year you and Brad made the decision to sell photos of your twins, for some extraordinary amount of money, to a couple of magazines to raise money for your charitable foundation. How big a call was that for you to in some ways auction off some of your privacy?
ANGELINA JOLIE: Well it’s not, the pictures are either going to be taken by a paparazzi and he’s going to pocket the money and do bad things with it, or it can be controlled by us and put into good causes. So it’s not auctioning off our privacy. Our privacy’s already gone. It’s making a decision of who is going to make money from it, and where is it going to go and we can funnel it to the proper decent channels.

Angelina on her UN activities:
ANDREW DENTON: You’ve gone to a lot of countries in your role with the UN. Is there a story that you can share that gives some sense of why you’re so passionate about this?
ANGELINA JOLIE: I can’t tell you stories without crying or something. You know there’s so, there are just so many. It really changed my life drastically. The first time I went to a war zone and went to Sierra Leone, and I wasn’t a goodwill ambassador and I wasn’t with cameras and I just went and I spent a few weeks, and I saw what what real suffering is and I saw what real survival and real strength of character and really amazing people in situations in the world that I understood there was a great deal I did not know and that I was quite ignorant in many ways.
ANDREW DENTON: How did you come to be there?
ANGELINA JOLIE: I was following the stories on the news, and I just wanted to know more…
ANDREW DENTON: I’ve read your accounts of your travels in places like Jordan and Kosovo and so on. How do you return from places like this with such hardship to a life of privilege, and feel comfortable?
ANGELINA JOLIE: Well, I think people have this idea of what my life is. They’ll see some movie event and they’ll think that that’s my life. My life is waking up with my children.
ANDREW DENTON: Look sure, as any of us though would return to a life of privilege compared to the hardship.
ANGELINA JOLIE: Sure, but I’m saying my daily life is one of being a mother, and that is my constant. Right, so wherever I am, whatever I’m doing that’s my constant and so when I go to those places, when I choose to go to those places I never forget that I’m grateful that I can go to those places and I can leave those places. And I have the financial ability to go in and even make a change in those places and do things with intentions of those places and it’s for my children’s future in the world they’re going to live in that I think these extraordinary places and people should be strong and wonderful and be all that they are should be allowed to be as human beings, and being given a fair share.

Clint Eastwood on meeting his wife, an anchor woman:
ANDREW DENTON: You’ve both met people who’ve been in the last little while have been catalysts, who changed your lives. How has Dina changed your life Clint?
CLINT EASTWOOD: I’ve been married once before, and I was single for a lot of years and I actually liked it. I was at the stage where I was starting to get like one of the guys who’s figured now this isn’t so bad and then one time she interviewed me it was after Unforgiven and it had come out and the show had done well and so she came and interviewed me. She was an anchor woman for NBC affiliate in Monterey, and I looked into these big brown eyes and I went “hmmm” and I didn’t think in terms of where this was going to go. I just thought this was interesting but it took a year or so before we actually ever started going out on a exclusive basis. I was just kind of saw each other around and reintroduce but she was just always there and then when we started going together it just hit me one day just sitting there I said I wouldn’t mind getting married again and this is the gal.
ANDREW DENTON: And what has she changed for you?
CLINT EASTWOOD: I was just living for my work and and for what I was doing whatever that was and wherever I was going. It was just I can go play golf anytime I wanted, I can do you know but I all of a sudden wanted to be connected. We didn’t know that we were going to have kids, we never even discussed that but on our honeymoon she started feeling a little ill and I thought is this something I’m doing here. But we’ve just we just loved it all along and she’s special person.

Angelina on how Brad completes her and she didn’t expect to find him:
ANDREW DENTON: And how about for you Angelina? You, a wild child for a long time. How has Brad changed things for you?
ANGELINA JOLIE: I hate these things cause I figure he’s gonna see them, and I’m busted.
ANDREW DENTON: Talk in code.
ANGELINA JOLIE: I had been a single Mum, I’d been married before and then I was kind of in a similar way. I mean I had a little boy but I was kind of in a stage of my life where I felt like I had tried marriage, I’m on my own, I’m raising my kid and my kid’s my life and and I guess I’m just going to be on my own and this is what it’s going to be, so I wasn’t looking for somebody to complete me in any way, but I met him and I just enjoyed my time with him, more than I enjoyed being alone suddenly. I see you with Dina, it’s the same. He’s that great friend and partner I like to talk with and laugh with and then more importantly I saw him with my son and I knew the type of man he would be and talked about family and we have this same, which is I think the most important for a couple, we have the same sense of how we see the world and how we see family and how we both want to build the same thing, we both have the same idea of what we should be spending our life doing and making.

Enough Rope – a full transcript and video is available on the website.

The final question is asking one thing they wanted to do in the future. Angelina wants to fly across the Sahara and raise good kids. Apparently she had planned to ride a camel across the desert but she saw someone’s behind who did it and it was chafed.

Clint wants to continue to raise his family well, and also keep working as it keeps him young. And to never play golf!

I appreciate that she got to speak at length about her UN activities, although I would have liked more detail about what it is that she’s actually doing there. I think she’s simply visiting and mostly raising awareness through her opportunities, judging from footage I have seen in the past.

I also thought her comment about the paparazzi doing something ‘bad’ with the money they earn from her pictures reveals something about how she feels when they chase her. At first I though ‘yeah, because paps don’t have families to care for, or a mortgage they’re paying’, but maybe she does see them as the baddies. To her they probably are.

Angelina Jolie is shown in a GMTV interview on 11/18/08. Credit: WENN. Header is of Angelina and Clint Eastwood at the Changeling premiere on 10/5/08. Credit: Bauergriffinonline

Comments are Closed

I think MOST celebs, particularly those with kids, think the papparazzi are “baddies,” and I would too. Imagine some big, strange, hairy guy following you down the street yelling rude things to get your child’s attention. Gives me the creeps.

I think that ‘bad thing with the money’ comment needs to be taken in context. She’s just making the point, albeit clumsily, that they recognised a situation where they couldn’t control the interest so they controlled the outcome.

Long ago Angelina said she felt bad living a life of luxury after visiting these homeless people who were suffering. She now has 6 homes, travels by private jet and has several cars and an entourage to rival Cleopatra. Can we say hypocrite?

Use money for bad things? Like what? So if I was taking pictures and giving the money to an animal shelter it would be OK? Why is she OK with her children losing privacy? Zahara said it is not OK. Does she not care how her children feel? It is something she can get back if she tried.

This movie is tanking at the box office, let them just stop promoting it and go away. She is over exposed anyway.

so boring…she is boring, always vague, if she is so passionate about something that is what she has to say??? person person person…she does it for the photo op… same old same old…
I remember in the days brad was whit Jennifer, they had friends, they had a normal life…with this one, they are always alone or whit his family [when it's allowed], they talk about protecting their family, bla bla bla, and then, they do W mag…he claims it is for the promotion of his movie, but in fact, is promoting her. Has I see it, she is a lazy person, they both spend their days in bed…and kids need to knock to enter…Shi would knock? and Z too?? so lameeee…
btw Kim, good point …

All I hear is jealousy. She is an amazing woman, she will and has done more for people than you ever will in your whole life. So she spends her money on herself and her family don’t you when you get paid, or do you give your money to charity at all? she does a lot of charity work and I know she has gone to see soldiers and thank them for what they do. I was there. How can you rag on someone you don’t know. Stop hating on her just because she enjoys the life that was given to her. She earned it, just like you earn your money and buy for yourself.

I thought that was a lovely story too geronimo, you can just imagine the gravelly-voiced “Hmmm”

But I must say my initial reaction was the same as Helen’s – it may go to making an already immoral business more profitable, or it may not. I get that she meant that they wanted to control the final outcome of that profit so that it could benefit more than just better zoom lenses. For someone so articulate, she certainly does get caught up in her words quite often.

Could I point out that some of those 6 houses are rented and that it’s someone else who owns them? Also, Ptolemeic Egypt was never my strongpoint, but I thought that as Pharoh Cleopatra’s entourage was a court and basically a very well developed civil service?

I do think it is a bit unfair to have a go at someone over something that was said, admittedly, quite some time ago. What’s the difference between Angelina going home to a nice life and someone with a bit of empathy who passes a homeless person, they feel a bit bad for being able to go home to a compatatively nice home. Or a better example yet, someone who volunteers with the homeless or meals-on-wheels. So now they must l guilty for trying to improve their lot and their homelife because others are homeless?

Didn’t you say once, Kim, that you’re in Africa doing some aid work and are only around until you get moved to your next site? Just out of curiosity (because I actually am interested) if you ever intend on returning to your home country, do you think you’ll feel pangs of guilt for being able to get away and potentially make a nice life for yourself. If that happens, will you feel yourself to be a hypocrite too?

Maired, I did a year has a volunteer worker in Angola, and it’s not a question of feeling priveliged or not of coming home, I came home, in my spare time, I still work has a volunteer in something similar to your Salvation Army, and, on weekends, I volunteer at an organization that aims to include ilegal emigrants, but my point his, you come home and his still something important, it’s not something you leave behind. And, in her case, it’s something like, been there, done that, and people give a pad on the back, like, good job!!…There is so much she could do, that would really make a difference…

I really admire anyone who donates their time and money to charities and those less fortunate. And I find it appalling that people think they have the right to tell anyone how to donate their money or spend their time.

People criticize her for everything that she does. I am not saying that she is perfect – but we all change as we age and I enjoy seeing this side of Angelina. She is an amazing humantarian and I truly hope that she continues to contribute to our world.

@ Kim- may be she doesn’t have a choice reagrding her privacy. I doubt that she enjoys not even being able to go the movies with her children without hundreds of paparazzi following them. I mean my God she had to leave the country just to have her children. I always try to put myself in somebody’s shoes before I judge them.

What an arrogant statement. Only AJ can decide the proper use of plain folks’ income?

There was a time when AJ spent some of her fortune on heroin, but now she is the world’s sexy Mother Teresa.

Maybe the paparazzi, too, has given up heroin and now gives the exact same percentage of his income to charity that AJ gives.

Wouldn’t it be more saintly of sexy Mother Teresa not to judge the paparazzi? Maybe he’s working on his “evolution” the same way she has, but on a smaller scale.

Maybe he hopes one day to be as evolved as she is, but for now settles for roaming the streets of LA with a pained look on his face, adopting numerous homeless cats. Maybe his goal is to get the big shot of a famous celeb that will allow him to roam the streets of the world with a pained look on his face, adopting homeless kids.

I know what would get the paps to leave them alone……MOVE TO MISSOURI and get into a routine, they’d save a boatload of money and be able to open up homeless shelters, youth homes, soup kitchens, all across America!

(I realize I am leaving out many other places in dire need, such as Haiti, etc.)

Re: the paps doing “bad” things with the money. Are people really going to get worked up over that? These are the same people who break into private properties, shout obscenities, terrorize children and perhaps belong to gangs.

If Angie manages to bring attention to the problems in the areas she is visiting, she is doing something worthwile. Beats laying around the swimming pool in Malibu or Meh-hee-co.

To Kim: “Changeling” continues to be in the top 10 at the box office. I wouldn’t exactly call that “tanking”. Angie is one of the biggest box-office draws among actresses and, unlike someone else I could mention but won’t, she has no problem finding distributors for her movies.

I am sure the paparazzi can be very annoying, but I don’t think they are the super villians some of these celebrities make them out to be.

It seems like most of the pictures they take are at the same few LA/NY spots and sometimes promotional events. Couldn’t the celebrities just assume they will be photographed if they show up at these spots/events and not go if it is so distasteful to be photographed?

And the celebrities could also quit tipping off the photographers when they are planning to travel. Do you really think the paparazzi just happens to be on an isolated beach in Africa, or New Orleans, or Prague when the Jolie-Pitts are there?

These celebrities have much more control over when they are photographed than they would have the public believe.

Many celebrities have kids, but we never see most of them. Somehow, Mel Gibson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Meg Ryan, Dennis Quaid, Sean Penn, etc, raise their kids privately. We see pictures of the kids of the same handful of celebrities over and over and their parents have a lot to do with that.

I re-read my earlier comment and felt that the second half may be more critical than I intended it? My questions really were more to flesh out the thought process behind the critiscism and weren’t meant to be a critiscism themselves.

Wise, sorry if I got you confused with Kim – and I think your volunteerism is amazing. I’ve never followed through on wishes to do more (I’ve worked in NGOs and with public bodies in helping the public, but in an area which isn’t directly linked with humanitarianism, but little else).

Now, I’m not getting the “been there, done that” vibe myself, but I see her role as being quite fluid, for the want of a better word. it is to go in, see what’s the story, and keep plugging it in interviews and in conferences where she’s asked to speak.

So, I guess what I’m getting at is, wise-adviser (and others of course) what do you think she could do to be of benefit, say to the plight of refugees? (that’s her specific cause with the UN, although the Jolie-Pitt Foundation has given grants to other causes.)

I’m not asking this to be sarcastic , I do genuinely want to hear the suggestions, especially from people who have been “out in the field”.

Just on the paparazzi issue – each country does have its own band of them, and in Europe due to common borders within the EU it’s easy enough to travel. And people do spot celebs on holiday

Because of the huge money to be made from certain celebs in particular, there really can be a push to get the “money shot” and if that means hopping on the bonnet of a car, lying on the gutter, renting a nearby house with a particularly good view or plain old trespassing they will do it. But as always, some celebs seem to be more marketable than others, regardless of their A-Z list status.

I do agree that saying they’d do bad things with the money was silly – probably it would have been better to say something like “doing God knows what with the money”.

olá (hello)
Mairead, thank you. Usually, I keep myself out from this sort of websites, but, since I’m obligated to be at home (due to a little accident) sometimes, I glance through, and honestly, usually, just for laughs. I have to admit, my first post were not the nicest words, because I’m a little feed up whit her. I believe that people can change, but I don’t like the way she has changed, I’ve never liked extremes … they always lack balance. When I mentioned that she could do much more and probably much better, and since you asked for suggestions, she could probably stop using the time she has to promote films, to promote everything else… because she is not being taken seriously about anything. There should be a time and a place for everything, and even when you reed the post above what do you get? Did she encourage you to make a difference? Did she encourage her government to do different? Did she say anything of consequence that inspired you to make a difference? Because, you can, you can really make a difference, and you don’t need to adopt nobody in order to do that or have millions…. And she is not getting that through!! You could open your house to refugee kids and become a temporarily adoptive family, you could go to your local orphanage and take a kid home for christmas…I’m sorry, I’m just tired of seeing them play has a doo-gooder’s. I always prefer people that act rather than preach… (and no, I’m not preaching…)

Kyrie, it might seem like AJ is the only person who gives her time and money to causes because of all the publicity that surrounds it,
but the majority of Americans are charitable people who do their good deeds quietly. According to America.gov…

“The 70 percent of American households that make charitable contributions give, on average…3.5 percent of their income. This amounts to about $180 billion dollars. When contributions from
foundations, bequests and corporations are added, total charitable contributions in the United States amount to over $240 billion….

44 percent of Americans engaged in volunteer work. The dollar value of their efforts was estimated to be $240 billion. Volunteers and givers are in general the same people.”

So Angelina did not encourage you to make a difference? Oprah, Bill Gates, to name a few humanitarians out there do the same thing, so do Bill Gates and Oprah encourage you to make a difference? Why “some” people have problems when it comes to AJ giving her time to charities when there are also actors/actresses who do the same thing errr like Aniston doing something like being in Saint Jude ad but nobody’s talking how is that changing the fans to make a difference?? hmmmmm.

Very good AJ short interview on the Culture Show last night (BBC2) with Mark Kermode. She talked just about the film and Clint and his methods of directing. Kermode (who I love) loved The Changeling. There’s also an AJ special on the Culture Show on Thursday at 7pm for anyone’s that’s interested.

I find it so interesting that the criticism of her is so intense. Yet when reviewing other post of celebs who are all mouth and pictures about issues I seen none of this criticism. She has been doing this for 8 years. A long time to fake it. She has been honest about doing drugs. Other celebs have kept quiet. Her past if constantly flung in her face. She does not have to be perfect. She has admitted to making mistakes, who has not. The difference is she and Brad are expected to live in a hovel with their children to prove that they care about others. Why do some of you not hold other celebs to this high and unreasonable standard. Angie and Brad can spend and throw away their money however they want. They earned it the sames as, Will Smith, Tom Cruise, Vince Vaughn, Johnny Depp, Jennifer Aniston, David/Victoria Beckham, and so many others. What are these high earners doing to make a difference. Where were they when NOLA, and other cities and states lost everything in storms, Why no comments about them helping. Will Smith has his kids at every celeb event… Is he pimping them, Jen has loads of money.. What does she do with it.. Johnny Depp makes his money in the US, and leaves nothing of it here. What about him.. Nothing from the people who keep such accurate records of what Angie and Brad spend their money on. I am so tired of the Double Standard. Hate, like or indifference… Be fair. Spread your disdain to all. Not just these two.

Angelina is a good looking woman.
Clint Eastwood is a jewel. Thank you for all your great films. Waiting for the next one. Benigna Marko has been watching dirty harry and calahan movies for ever and when he comes out with romantic movies like Bridges of Madison County – heartbreaker. Love him.
Benigna Marko